


Forbidden Scent

by MarieTaehyung



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band), Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Confusion, F/F, F/M, Fandom, Ghouls, Ireland, M/M, Multi, Suspense, Teenagers, Violence, korea - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-05 01:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11567946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarieTaehyung/pseuds/MarieTaehyung
Summary: What happens when you mix the world of Tokyo Ghoul with Seoul's people?Hi, my name is Jane Yoon-Lee, I'm 19 years old and I just moved from Dublin, Ireland to Seoul, South Korea. I was born and raised in Ireland. My mum's Korean and she worked at a small café and my dad's Irish and he worked at a shoes factory.Some months ago, he got fired from that job, so we had to move to Seoul, where my mum had some contacts and could gain some money by doing the exact same thing she did in Ireland.§§§§Hope you all like this story! This will be a mix of fandoms, from A.C.E to Tokyo Ghoul, with some surprises on the way (including some Harry Potter/Teen Wolf/Irish references).Please forgive my English (as it's not my first language).... If you think I can improve with the language or the story itself, feel free to tell me that in the comments.Enjoy!





	1. The Beginning

What happens when you mix the world of  _Tokyo Ghoul_  with Seoul'speople?

Hi, my name is Jane Yoon-Lee, I'm 19 years old and I just moved from Dublin, Ireland to Seoul,South Korea. I was born and raised in Ireland. My mum's Korean and she worked at a small café and my dad's Irish _a_ nd he worked at a shoe factory. Some months ago, he got fired from that job, so we had to move to Seoul _,_ where my mum had some contacts and could gain some money by doing the exact same thing she did in Ireland. 

We've been living here for almost 2 months and so far the situation isn't great.... Instead of going to school, I help my mum at the café (which, by the way, is called  _커피주세요_ ** _!_** _- keopijuseyo_  - " _Coffee, please!_ ") every morning... In the afternoon, I watched the boys and girls walking home together when that day's classes ended. I watched them laughing, running, playing, being friends with each other, and there I was, on the 3rd floor of an old building, doing the house chores looking out of the window with the eyes of an abandoned puppy.

“So.... The new semester is about to start.... And.... You know.... Do you think I could go to school this time?” I asked, praying to all the Gods above for a "yes".

“Why are you always insisting on that? You can't go, at least not yet.” I was losing my hope… “Here, let me put some meat on your plate.”

It was dinner time and we were sitting on our small, square kitchen table. Appa (what I usually call my dad) was facing the oven and Omma (my mum) and I were in front of him.

“But why? Please, just tell why! I hate to help you at **커피** , you know that. Also, your boss is a weirdo...”

“I told you to stop calling him a weirdo.”

“Where's the lie, though?” I tried one last time. “Omma, please, I promise I'll do the house chores anyway! I just want to make some friends! I'm 19yo and home alone... I'm supposed to be out with my friends, not at a café with my mum and a weird old man.”

She looked at my dad and he shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to step in my mom's decisions but I knew he didn't agree with her.

I finished my meal, asked my dad to go to my room and locked the door behind me. I sat on the floor and noticed some tears rolling down in my face. They were dropping so fast that I couldn't stop them.

 

_Since I was a little kid that my dad would tell me that crying is for the weak, so whenever I needed to do so I'd go to my room and cry alone and quietly so he wouldn't hear me. When I realized, I was 7yo and never cried again. Until the day my dad got fired... It was my fault... Or at least I thought it was... I don't quite remember that day so well, especially between the moment I arrived at my dad's working place and the moment I woke up again, lying in my bed and crying without even knowing why._

 

I heard some heavy steps in the hallway, walking towards my room. I got up, cleaned my face with some water and sat on the desk pretending to be studying. Someone started knocking on the door.

“Jane, can I come in?” Appa asked with the calmest voice.

“Yeh... Let me just unlock the door.” I unlocked it and sat again on the desk.

“You do know that you need to go to school in order to have homework to do, right?!” he said trying to sound funny (failing of course).

“Oh really? And where don't you guys let me go? Oh wait, SCHOOL!” my sarcastic voice was starting to show up. I was mad, really mad, but deep down I knew they were right. He pulled another chair and sat right next to me. Of course, I wasn't studying, but I was drawing. It was a boy, full of stitches and eyes blood red, and another one with some kind of sword and mid length hair that flew with the wind.

“What's that?” he asked.

“It's a nightmare I'm having since we moved here...” Somehow, my dad's tone always calmed me down.

“What are they doing?” He had "shock" written all over his face and something in the way he looked at the draw told me he knew those boys.

 _“_ Fighting I guess.... This is the last thing I see in my nightmare before I wake up. Everything before that is just a big blur of body shapes and weapons or so... I don't know it's all too confusing.”

“Okay then, don't be up for too long, and go get some rest.” He kissed my forehead and left my room in hurry. I didn't pay much attention to him because I was finishing my draw. It was my mum's weird boss who gave me the idea of drawing my nightmare. Apparently, there's an old folklore that says that if your terrors are imprisoned in a piece of paper they can't appear in your sleep. It doesn't hurt to try, right?!


	2. 커피

I woke up the next morning exhausted and still sweaty from the nightmare. I had it once again, but this time I saw a bit more. The guy with the stitches was attacking the other one and that poor guy was trying to defend himself with all he had. At the moment, he had only some kind of a weird sword...

I got up, had a quick shower, put my clothes on and prepared to spend another morning in  **커피** **.**  The café appeared small from the outside (and in fact, it was small on the inside as well), but the way it was organized and decorated made it look like it was huge. As soon as you walked in, the most wonderful smell of coffee would make you want to sit and to drink a cup of it with a toast on the side. It had no more than 10 small tables with 4 chairs each. On the left side of the entrance, there was a counter where usually Mr. Yoshimura was, cleaning some dishes and smiling for no reason. He always told me that  **커피**  was the only reason he was happy. At the end of that room, there were the toilets. On the left side of the counter, there was a door that lead to the back of the café. For some reason, that I'm not aware of, Omma and Mr. Yoshimura never let me go there.

As I was coming out of my room I heard my parents talking about something. They probably wouldn't want me to hear their conversation since they were whispering.

“I understand her completely but I need to figure out first why she's dreaming about it _._ And although she draws really well, it doesn´t mean it’s the same person! _”_ _as soon as they noticed me they changed the subject._ “Hurry up Jane, I don't want to be late again, not today.” my mum said, kissing my dad goodbye and going to wait for me in the elevator.

I grabbed a bit of meat from yesterday's leftovers and prepared to leave.

“See you later Appa!”  _I waved goodbye but he called me back._

“Jane...”  _I got closer to him_  “Please, don't talk to anyone about that nightmare of yours...”  _I found his request a bit odd but since he didn't tell me why, I just simply answered_ “Appa, remember that I have no friends and all your concerns will disappear!”  _He seemed unusually worried today._

After that said, I put myself on my tippy toes and kissed him on his cheek before running to the elevator where my mum was waiting for me.

“Finally! Couldn't you wait to eat your breakfast in the café instead of making me wait for you?”  _the elevator's doors closed_ _._

“Why are you in such a hurry anyway? We're leaving 30 minutes earlier than the other days.”

“Yes, I know. We need to open the café today. Mr. Yoshimura will be out for the entire morning.”

“Where is he going? Making medical exams to see how many days he's got left?”  _the elevator's doors opened and we walked towards the café, which was at the end of our block_ _._

It was a rather beautiful morning. No clouds in the sky, just the sun warming my face when we left the building. It was spring and some cute little birds were flying all over the place.

“Don't be silly! He might seem old but he still has a lot of years ahead of him.”

“Okay, if you say so... But he never leaves  **커피**. I even thought he lived there... So where is he going?”

“He... Had to go out... To get some food. Yeh, we were out of food in the café so he had to get some.”  _was she trying to convince me or herself of what she was telling me? Anyways, I didn't want to insist in the same subject so I changed it._

“So yesterday evening I tried to follow Mr. Yoshimura's advice and draw my nightmare. Unfortunately, it seems the whole old folklore was bullshit.” _we arrived at_ ** _커피_** _._

“What exactly were you dreaming about?” _she asked_ _._

I told her about that dream, when suddenly someone walked into the café. Instead of an ordinary costumer, a boy entered the café and passed out in that same moment. He had blood covering all his clothes and they were ripped out. My mum ran to him to see if he was still breathing.  As he woke up he tried desperately to stand up, but he was too tired and weak to do it, so he just whispered:

“Bring me Yoshimura, they're attacking again...”


	3. The Boy

As soon as he said that, my mum picked him up from the floor and left the room with him, leaving me alone in that corner, still in shock with just had happened. So many questions invaded my mind at that moment: “How could she leave me alone? She shouldn't be able to pick him up… He must weight 70 kg or more, she's not that strong! Why is she taking him to the back of the café if she never lets me go there? I thought that was a place where only Mr Yoshimura could go…”

“Jane, do something, stop staring at the door!” she returned and I still hadn’t move a bit. “Call Mr Yoshimura, my mobile is in my bag. Go grab it and, please, move!”

I don’t know why I couldn’t move. That image of blooded clothes brought some memories that I didn’t know I had.

_I was in school, my stomach started to growl, I felt sick. Something was wrong, I could feel it. I started to have headaches and they increased in pain as seconds went by. I left school and started running to my appa's working place. I don't know why, I guess just felt like it was the best thing to do [Oppa always seemed to know what to do in such cases. Last time my head ached this bad he gave me a bit of food and the pain went away. I don't know what he did with that food but it helped a lot]._

_When I got there, I only heard Oppa's boss calling him through the speaker and then I blacked out… The last thing I remember is a room full of blood and an enormous pain in the back of my head. I blacked out again. When I woke up once again, tears were rolling out of my face and I couldn't remember why. Now I know it was because of that room in Oppa's factory. But what caused it? And that pain… What was it?_

I finally managed to move and to reach to Omma’s bag where her mobile phone was.

“Moshi, moshi Nari. Is everything okay?” Mr Yoshimura answered.

“Mr Yoshimura, it's me, Jane. Omma told me to call you.” My voice was trembling all over the place.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Some boy came to 커피 and passed away on the floor. He was covered in blood and bleeding a lot and he was full of scars and… And… And when he woke up he was super weak and all he could say was something like “Call Yoshimura ‘cause they’re attacking”. Then mum picked him up and took him to the back of  **커** **피**  and told me to call you.”I was crying… Again… What’s wrong with me? Why am I crying so often?

“Jane, first of all, please calm down.” he said with his usual calm old voice “Is the floor dirty with his blood?” Why is he asking about the floor? There’s a bleeding boy in the back of his café and he’s asking about the floor?

“Yes, of course it is! He’s hurt! Badly!” I was now half crying, half screaming.

“Then clean it up if you don’t mind. We don’t want our customers to see all that blood, now do we?” I was so confused by his reaction…

“No, we don't Mr Yoshimura.”

“I'm a bit far, but I'll probably be able to arrive at the café in 15 minutes from now. Please tell your mum to ask the young boy if he ate in the last week. See you in a bit.” He hang up.

I started to walk towards the back where Omma was. My pass was slow, like really slow. Somehow I was afraid of going there. Maybe because they never let me. But why didn’t they let me? It’s just a café. I passed through the door and see Omma running from one room to another telling the boy “I’m coming, please don’t move, it will only make it worse”. The back of  _커피주세_ _요_ _(Coffee, Please!)_  was a lot bigger than I imagined. There were 8 doors, 4 on each side of the hallway and at its end there were stairs to go up to another floor. The first doors on each side were locked (I checked). The second door on the left was unlocked but when I opened it I only saw I huge curtain hiding the bed behind it. The room where Omma entered (the second door on the right side of the hallway) looked the same as the one on the left, however, the curtain was opened. I kept walking towards that door to see the boy. When I picked to the inside of the room, Omma was trying to make him stop bleeding. He was doing his best to stay still and to not to scream, which wasn't too hard since all his strength was running out.

“Omma, can I help?” I said after gaining some courage to do so. I thought she would be mad at me for going back there.

“Jane! Did you call Mr Yoshimura? Yes, you can help, go to the other room and bring me a recipient with some water.”

“I did. He'll be here in about 10 minutes, now. Also, ask the boy if he ate in the last week. It doesn't make any sense, I know, but Mr Yoshimura asked you to do so…”

I supposed the recipient would be in the same room my mum walked out of earlier (third door on the left), so I went there. It was a small room more like a “janitor’s room” (like the ones we had back there in Ireland’s school) but with infirmary stuff packed there. It had a lot of medicine and I saw some boxes of the vitamin my parents take every morning – the I.G.Enzyme. I filled with water the largest recipient I found and left the room.

“Here Omma.”

“Thank you, dear. Please take this and clean his wounds with that water.” I looked at him. He must be the same age as me.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you.” It took him some effort but he opened his eyes and looked at me. He was nearly passing out.

“Do-Don’t worry… Thank y-you…” he spoke slowly and it was obvious it hurt while he did it.

“Please don’t talk. Just rest and save your energy for later. You’ll need all your strength to recover.”

I saw Omma looking at me with a smile on her face. Not like a huge smile but you could tell it was a proud smile. Maybe proud because I was helping her or maybe because I wasn't crying anymore and was actually helping instead of staring at the front door like before, I don't know. He fell asleep after that and didn't wake up for 2 days straight. We took care of his wounds, I cleaned the floor of the café where he fell and Mr Yoshimura arrived going immediately to the boy's room to talk to Omma. After that, the three of us would take shifts to look after him: Mr Yoshimura during the night, Omma during the afternoon and I'd do it in the morning since that was the only time I helped at the café. I enjoyed sitting on a chair near his bed and reading out loud or listening to music while singing to him, hoping he'd hear and who knows he'd wake up.

On the second morning, Omma and I arrived at  **커** **피**  and I kind of ran to the bedroom where the boy was. The day before, I had to leave in the middle of a book I was reading to him and I left in a cliff-hanger part so I was super curious to finish it. I sat on that same chair and opened the book.

“Good morning! How do you feel today?” I knew he was asleep and wouldn’t reply to me, but I always talked to him. “So… I almost couldn’t sleep last night since I spend all night thinking about yesterday’s chapter. I’m so curious!” I cleared my voice and prepared to start reading.

 _“_ You-you're Jane, ri-right?”


	4. Not Human

“God! You scared me! Yes, I’m Jane. How do you feel?” I was so surprised he was awake. Mr Yoshimura thought he'd only wake up in a couple of days.

“Still hurts a bit, but not as much as before.” He said slowly. “Do you know if your mum spoke to Mr Yoshimura?”

“About what? And who are you after all?” At this point, he was fully awake and was recovering pretty fast. He sat on the bed.

“Oh right, sorry, I completely forgot to introduce myself.”

And so he did. His name was Kang Yoochan and he was 19yo. His hair was curly on the top and with a dark ginger colour. His eyes were big and beautifully dark. I don’t know how I didn’t notice them before. His smile was warming and friendly. It was the first time I was meeting this boy, but something about him told me he was a nice guy full of love to give.

“You can call me Chan!” He smiled at me. “It’s nice to meet you, in the proper way this time!”

“Indeed!” I agreed while giggling. “So, what did my mum had to tell Mr Yoshimura? What was that all about?”

He was about to tell me that, when Mr Yoshimura and Omma arrived the room. I was still on the chair with the book on my hand. I looked at them. Something was not right. Omma had a serious and preoccupied expression on her face.

“Jane, can I please talk to Yoochan alone?” Mr Yoshimura asked.

“Sure," I replied a bit confused with that sudden entrance in the room.

“Please come with me, dear.” Omma said forcing a fake smile.

We exited the room and I still saw Mr Yoshimura sitting on the chair where I was before. Chan's face changed, from a cute smile to a fear expression, in a second.

“Omma, what’s happening?” She had been acting really strange in the last couple of days. “Are you finally going to explain me why did Chan arrive all bloody?” She always replied that she had no idea, but I knew she was aware of everything.

We were walking to the end of the hallway and Omma opened the last door on the right. It was a room not as big as Chan’s, but still bigger than the “infirmary”. It looked like a conference room with a large round table right in the middle. Around it, there were 6 big and comfy chairs. In the background, I could see a small counter, a dishwasher, a coffee machine and a mini-fridge. Above all that, there was a small window.

“Have a seat dear. Dad will be here in a minute.”

“Dad? Why is he coming here? Doesn’t he have to go to work?”

“Yes, but we need to talk to you first.” I was now officially scared. “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.”

Appa arrived right after that and sat on the chair, next to Omma. I could see they were trying to gain some courage to tell me whatever they wanted to since they were looking at each other, then at me, then at each other once again. I was already scared, but now, I was starting to get really anxious. It seemed like half an hour had passed when they finally said something.

“Do you know what a ghoul is?” Omma asked. I thought they were going to reprimand me about something or so. Instead she asks me that.

“Y- Yes, I do, what about them?”

“Well… Uhm… There's no better way of telling you this, so… Chan's a ghoul… That's why he recovered so fast… And so are we all… Omma, I, Mr Yoshimura and you, dear…”

“What do you mean, I’m a ghoul? That doesn’t make any sense!”

It did make sense after all… They told me so much about me, my family, my history, that I had no idea it was true. Apparently, both my parents are ghoul and so were their parents. It's been that way for centuries. Appa was born and raised in Dublin, but Omma was born in Daesung and raised in Seoul. When she was 13yo, something happened to her parents (I don't know what since she refused to tell me), so Mr Yoshimura took care of her until her 18th birthday, the day she flew to Dublin. All this new information was making me nauseous, it was a lot to take in… Also, why would they keep this kind of information away from me for so long? I listened carefully to everything they were telling me, but there were some things that didn’t make any sense. I was always told that Ghouls could only eat human flesh and drink coffee. If that was the truth, why were we all able to eat other kinds of food? I mean, Omma cooks pretty often and when she doesn’t, she brings home some food from the café. I mean, we even ate at restaurants sometimes. I asked them and Omma said she’d explain me that later on.

“Jane, are you okay? Please say something.” I was so deep into my thoughts that I forgot I was in a room with Appa and Omma.

“Wh-What? Ah, yes, I’m okay don’t worry… Just a bit too much information at the same time. I only need some time alone to understand all that you guys just told me…” I got up, slowly, and walked towards the library. Since I was now able to go to the back of the café, I wanted to know what was behind the other doors. That’s when I found out the library, third door on the right.

“ _Ghouls: from A to Z_. Interesting choice… Can I know why the hell are you reading that?” Chan found me there, already reading. I was sitting on an old but comfortable puff and on my left, there was a mountain of books, all about ghouls.

“It’s… You know… I want to learn more about Ghouls, that’s all.”

“Why?” He looked confused.

“I… I just found out I’m a ghoul… But I don’t believe it… None of us is a killer. We don’t eat human flesh. I’ve never even seen my red eyes…”

“You thought you were human? How? Even I knew you were a ghoul.”

“How did you know? The first time we properly talked to each other was this morning when you woke up…”

“You really don’t know a thing about ghouls, do you?” he was laughing and I didn’t find it that funny… This was now my life and I knew nothing about it… How could he be laughing? He took a final bite on the apple he was eating, right before offering me his help “Ok, why don’t I teach you some things? I mean, it’s the least I can do, after you taking such good care of me.”

That was a really nice offer. I didn't want to have to ask my parents all this stuff and since Mr Yoshimura was a weirdo and I don’t really know how to talk to him, Chan was my last hope.


	5. Ghoul World

I agreed in letting Chan be my mentor in “How to be a Ghoul 101”.

“First of all, you know, at least, what a ghoul is, right?” I nodded yes. “Ok, can you explain to me what your definition of ghoul is? And please do not say "Ghouls are killers" or something as stereotyped as that.”

“Ghouls…. Ghouls are a different species than humans but have a very similar anatomy. The only difference is that ghouls have those killer members on their backs…” he couldn’t help but to laugh.

“You’re right about that but let’s not call them killer members, okay? They’re actually called Kagunes and they are as red as blood. Each ghoul has a different kagune and with it, they can defend themselves when another ghoul or enemy tries to attack.”

“What about killing humans?”

“Why are you so obsessed with killing humans? Do you want to kill a human?” he laughed again but as soon as he saw my face, with my eyes wide open, he stopped. “Relax, you don’t have to kill any human.”

I started breathing again. I don't think I'd be able to kill someone… I just can't do it… He saw how scared I got after that, so he explained to me where and how they usually get the human flesh to feed on. Apparently, there’s this bridge in Seoul, called the Bridge of Life, which is the Korean’s favourite place to end their lives. It’s really sad to feed on people who were so sad, that they had to kill themselves, but at least it’s better than killing one innocent human being.

“I was wondering, how come can my parents, Mr Yoshimura, you and I eat human food? I mean, you just ate an apple, weren’t you supposed to feel all sick and nauseous? From what I read on that book earlier, ghouls aren’t supposed to be able to digest human food because of a certain enzyme on your… hum… On our bodies.”

“Yeh… About that… I don’t know if I’m the right person to explain you that… I can tell you, though, that it has to be with your mum’s previous job, you know, as a nutritionist.” he seemed really sure about Omma being a nutritionist but I don’t recall her ever mentioning that.

“I’m sorry Chan, do you mind if I just go talk to my mum for a moment? I’d like to clarify that before you teach me more about the Ghoul world.

“Nah, not at all! I think I’ll just catch on reading that damn book you were reading to me while I was unconscious. You never got to finish it, after all.”

I went towards the front of the café, only to find an empty place where Mr Yoshimura was, smiling with his eyes closed while cleaning a small colourful cup. This is one of the reasons why I call him a weirdo… I mean, who stays for hours on a café, smiling at anything and cleaning dishes that are already clean?

“Hum… Mr Yoshimura, sir? Where's Omma? I thought she was in here with Appa, talking to you…”

“Ah, Jane! Isn't the sky so beautiful? Even with those grey, massive clouds, you know that there's a blue sky with a shiny sun above it! I hope it rains today. I want to plant some vegetables in my yard but the soil’s too dry for anything to grow there. What do you think Jane? What should I plant? Some carrots, maybe...”

“S- sure, carrots. But, my mum, where is she?”

“Yes, yes, your mum. She’s outside with your dad.” he was still cleaning the same damn cup.

“Thank you, sir!”

As soon as I walked out of _**커피**_ _, both mum and dad ran to me. “Are you okay? I’m sorry for not telling you this sooner! Please talk to us!” I was surrounded by questions and I was the one who needed the answers. They suddenly stopped talking and stared at me hoping for a reply._

 _“_ I’m sorry guys, but I just wanted to ask you something…” They looked at each other, then turned their eyes to me again.

“But of course, sweetie, anything! What is it?”

“Chan was helping me with this ghoul thing… He was answering some questions I had and when I asked about the food we eat he said that I should ask Omma about it since it has to be with her last job as a nutritionist…”

Omma explained me everything. For 4 years, she worked at some kind of secret organization, which goal was to come up with a medicine that could neutralize the enzyme ghouls have. That way, ghouls could eat human’s food without being nauseous or sick. They could act more human-like. They could turn hunters and investigator’s eyes away from them. They still had to eat human flesh, but with this new medicine, they could cook the meat making it look more like human food. The flavour of it wasn’t bad, but simple things like rice or fish that tasted horrible, were now tasty. Omma and Appa would take that medicine everyday saying they were vitamins for the old people (this always made me laugh). I never took those “vitamins”, because when Omma was pregnant with me, she had already started taking the I.G.Enzyme, so the effect on me became permanent.

“So, who has those vitamins recipe? I mean, if it was a secret organization I doubt you gave the recipe to a medicine factory, to make them…”

“You are right, my dear.” Appa explained. “Only Omma and I possess the recipe for those pills. We are the ones who make it, who produces it, who puts it inside those little flasks. Also, not every ghoul takes it, only a few ghouls know about its existence. It's too dangerous to sell it to other ghouls since they can be associated with Ghoul Investigators/Hunters. For now, besides me, Omma, Mr Yoshimura and Chan, only Uta and Nagini take it.”

“Who are those two?” I’ve never heard of them before.

“Nari, Desmond, come inside right now, please!” Mr Yoshimura looked worried and angry. I just didn’t know if he was angry at us or at something else. “Hurry!”

“Come on Jane, let’s talk about this later.”

We went back inside, but Mr Yoshimura stayed at the door, looking for something. It started raining, not much but enough to make whoever was hiding go away. Mr Yoshimura closed the door and when he turned, three scared faces were staring at him. I was hugging Omma, who was hugging Appa. We've never seen Mr Yoshimura so worried and his voice tone sounded like something bad was about to happen.

“Jane, please go to the library and stay there with Chan. I need to talk with your parents alone for a moment.”

I obeyed and went to the back of the café. Meanwhile, Chan was still finishing that book, but he stopped when I came in the library. He probably noticed that I was still scared with what had just happened, so he stood up really quick and went to the small fridge to get me a bottle of water and a meat snack.

“God, you look terrible! What happened? You look like you just saw a ghost!” I thanked him for the water and sat on a chair.

I explained that I was talking with Omma and Appa and that suddenly Mr Yoshimura rushed us inside the café with the scariest face ever and a worried voice tone.

“I’ve never seen him like that… Now he asked me to stay here with you while he talked with my parents…” I stated.

“That’s weird… Even for Yoshimura… I’m curious now! Let’s hear what they’re saying! Come on! Get up and hurry before they stop talking!”

I never got to say that I didn’t think that was a good idea. Chan grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the library. We stayed behind the door. There was no need to open it since we could hear them loud and clear.

“It’s them again, isn’t it?” Appa asked. “I knew we shouldn’t have come to Seoul. We should have stayed in Ireland!”

“Sure, like that was an option… After what she did, do you really think you could come back to the factory? Look at all of those poor souls who were able to survive? Would you have the courage of going to your colleagues' funerals? Coming here was our best move!” Omma was almost crying. “I can’t believe they found us…”

“Let’s not worry for now. For all we know they were just looking for clues of what’s happening around _ **커피**_. It doesn’t mean they’ll attack right away. That gives us some time to prepare for the worst case scenario.” Mr Yoshimura was calmer now but his eyes were wide open looking for something outside.

I looked at Chan asking who were they talking about but he shrank his shoulders, like he was saying "I have no idea". Whoever they were Mr Yoshimura was certainly afraid of them.

“What are we going to do then?” Omma asked. “Are they hunters or investigators?”

“They seemed like investigators. I think I saw them some weeks ago in Incheon collecting some information about people who they thought were ghouls. If I see them again I'll have a nice conversation with them, pretending I’m a normal human who lives in the neighbourhood.” Mr Yoshimura was pretty sure about what he was saying. “By the way, can I ask Jane about her dream? I want to make sure she's safer than I think.”

“What do you mean? Why shouldn’t she be safe? It’s just a dream right?”

“Who knows” Yoshimura finished.

I was intrigued. Why would my parents talk about my nightmare to Mr Yoshimura? And he thought a nightmare would put me in danger… Yep… He's the weirdest man I've ever met. No doubt there. Chan and I went back to the library since my parents and Yoshimura stopped talking. We were both super confused and none of us could explain that conversation.


	6. Investigators vs Hunters

“What do you think about looking for Ghoul Hunters and Ghoul Investigators in these books? There must be something…” I needed to know more than that, I needed to discover more about this ghoul world that was just presented to me.

“Yes, I think that’s a good idea.” Chan answered. “Start here, I’ll start in the back. Call me if you find something.”

I sat on the same chair as before with a pile of books on my lap. Chan dragged one of the three puffs to the back of the room. He was reading the titles of the books left on the shelves grabbing the ones he thought would have some interesting information. It had stopped raining and the sun was now shining. The library had a small window on the back and the sunshine was hitting Chan on his back, making him look like some kind of small, cute, baby angel. Blimey… He noticed I was staring at him…

“What? Is there something wrong?” he looked confused and was turning around to see if there was something there.

“No, no. Everything’s just fine.” I started reading one of the books, called _Ghouls and Its Enemies_. The title captivated me, so I started with that one. It was about important people (hunters and investigators) who either killed or saved ghouls throughout history.

While reading the index, looking for some kind of hunter and/or investigator definitions and differences, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Omma said earlier. Why was she talking about deaths and funerals? What did she mean by «after what she did»? I remembered the vision I had when I saw Chan covered in blood. Did I do that? Did I attack those people? I looked once again at Chan who was deeply concentrated on his book. He changed his position in the puff and started complaining to himself because the sunshine was now hitting his face. I, then, started to think about how fast his recovery was and that being a ghoul was not that bad after all.

“Ok, seriously, is there something on my forehead? You’re creeping me out. Stop staring.” he caught me again. I was staring straight at him but I didn’t even noticed it.

“Oh my… I’m sorry. I was just thinking about some stuff.”

“Were you thinking about me? Because you had a weird look on your face and, believe me, it was some sh*ty Yoshimura level kind of weird.”

“Never mind. Look, I wanted to ask you something but I kept being interrupted… First, it was Yoshimura, then “You’re a ghoul Jane” and finally hunters and investigators.” I explained waving my arms trying to express myself in a better way.

“Stop stalling.” he looked at me with an exaggerated and over dramatic bored face. “What is it?”

“Oh, right! Now it was me!” we both smiled and I carried on with my question. “If I may ask… Why did you arrive here the other day, covered in blood? Who hurt you?” he changed his cute smile to a worried expression and looked down.

“Yeh… About that. I have no idea who attacked me. It was early in the morning and I was walking down the street to get some breakfast when, suddenly, I felt an immense pain in the back of my head. I fell on the floor and saw 3 guys, one of them with a piece of wood, who dragged me out of the main street to a small and still dark alley. Then they started punching me and hitting me with that same piece of wood. At the end, they all stood up and smiled at me. The one in the middle, that I think it was the leader, told me to tell Yoshimura that “they” are attacking again. And so I did.”

I was looking at Chan horrified with his words. Why would someone attack an innocent boy in the middle of the street?

“So, you don’t know who they are but what about seeing their faces? Can you recognize them?”

“I think so. I mean, I tried to take a good look at them before they went away but my eyes were already starting to swallow.”

“Is that what you said to Mr Yoshimura when you woke up?”

“Yes… I feel so bad though… I want to help but I really know nothing about them.” his eyes were full of his tears as he was about to cry.

“Why the hell would you feel bad about it? You were the one beaten by them, not Yoshimura!”

“I know but… I wish I knew a bit more… Just that…” A tiny tear rolled down his face and his voice trembled a bit.

“Were you able to discover if they’re human or ghouls?” I gave Chan a tissue and he cleaned his face.

“Now that you ask, yes, I think they were human! At least they smelled like one.”

That was a good start. There are not many humans that know that Yoshimura is a ghoul and the ones who do, can’t possibly have a reason to hurt him. I mean, yes Yoshimura is a weirdo but it’s impossible to hurt that old, wrinkled and smiley man. You just can’t.

“I tried once you know? To be mad at him. He was bossing me around, like “Clean this, clean that” and I got angry and screamed at him. Guess what he did… He baked some cookies and gave them to me along with a giant mug of hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows inside. I love marshmallows!”

“You’re losing your point in the conversation again…”

“Dammit… Right. My point is that it's only logical that the only people who'd possibly want to hurt him are investigators or hunters or whatever.”

“Yeh… They actually appeared like they knew that I was a ghoul. Also, no “normal” human would know about my relationship with Yoshimura. I rarely came to **커피**. It was Yoshimura who used to come to my place to give me food and medicine…”

“Well, it looks like we need to search more about hunters and investigators. If we know nothing, we can’t stop them.”

“And how do you plan to “stop them”?” he said gesticulating, with his fingers, the inverted commas in the air.

“I’ll get there after gathering some information.” We laughed and carried on with the reading.

I had finally found the investigators' page on the index and proceeded to look for that page. _Investigators: the ghouls’ frenemies._ The first thought coming to my mind was that investigators couldn’t possibly be friends with ghouls. I mean, they attacked Chan. But what if he wasn’t attacked by investigators but by hunters? I still didn’t know the difference so I couldn’t come to any conclusions yet. I continued reading that chapter. The pages were full of pictures, especially old ones. Lots of people smiling next to each other and shaking hands and only ahead pictures of what it seemed to be a war. _Investigators may appear dangerous to ghouls for they can’t be distinguished from the hunters at first sight. In fact, one of the few differences between these two is the **Quinque** , a powerful weapon used by hunters (read more in p. 147). Investigators are human beings who enjoy studying ghouls' habits and way of living according to society. Their main goal is for ghouls to be able, in a near future, to live among humans without any kind of conflict. These humans have already lived in harmony with ghouls, for more than 300 years, in South Korea, in a tiny village called Gurim, just outside of Wolchulsan National Park. However, in 1867, the village got attacked by hunters and neither ghouls nor investigators were able to defend themselves, for ghouls didn’t know how to use their Kagunes since they didn’t have the need to attack the humans. This war (also known as the Bloody Gurim) lasted 2 months and a few days. No investigators nor ghouls were left alive. Since that war that ghouls never trusted humans again. Investigators and hunters started to be considered the same from ghouls’ point of view. Only investigators kept their word and improved their philosophy by learning more about both species and trying desperately to prevent a new war from happening. Their goal was now “to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves”._ This book was really interesting. I never thought investigators cared so much about ghouls. In fact, as it’s written, ghouls do think investigators and hunters are the same. The war pictures were terrifying, only burned houses and corpses lying on the floor.

 _Important Investigators Throughout History_ was the title of the new chapter. There was an immense list of names, each with their biography page ahead. There was one, though, who caught my attention. _Suzuya Juuzou, the youngest investigator to have its own squad (p. 281)._ I moved to that page right away.

“No, this is not right! No, no, no, no, no, NO!” As I screamed the book fell on the floor.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Chan asked worriedly.

“He… He’s the… It can’t be!” I started crying.

“Hey, hey, hey! Calm down! What happened?” Chan ran to me and picked up the book. “Were you on this page?” I nodded yes. “Please, just calm down, let me read this.”

 _Suzuya Juuzou, also known by many as Rei, was officially considered the youngest investigator to create his own Squad. With only 20 years old, Rei started training other investigators and helping them succeed in every mission it’s given to them. Suzuya is now 22yo and his squad’s investigations cover more than half of South Korea, but his plan is to cover the entire country before he turns 25yo._ There was a picture of him above on that same page. This book was first published two years ago, so he’d now be 24yo.

“Wow, he sure likes to be an investigator, that’s impressive!” Chan looked at me. I was a quieter now. “So, tell me, why did you freak out when you saw this?”

I tried to explain to him while my voice trembled. Tears were rolling down my face, but I convinced myself that I wasn't crying.

“S-since I came to South Korea that… That I’m having this nightmare where a guy is attacking the other… I can’t sleep properly… It scares the hell out of me… Suzuya… He’s the attacker… He’s the one with a weird knife on his hand trying to hurt the other…”

“What the… Why would you dream about a guy you haven’t even met? That’s insane! Are you sure it’s him?” I nodded yes.


End file.
